General ’TikTok ban’ in Montana USA

Since March 2023, TikTok has been available in 154 countries and in 75 languages. It is expected that the app will be available in even more countries and languages in 2024. Some of the most popular languages in which TikTok is available include English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and Chinese of course….the Chinese social media platform is extremely popular. For those who are not yet ’TikTokers’: it is a social media platform where users can publish short videos that can be edited with filters, music, and other effects. The videos are often creative and humorous. So they say……

TikTok now has over one billion monthly active users worldwide, with the United States leading the way with nearly 120 million active users. Currently, there are about 340 million people living in the United States, which means that every third American is now using the TikTok app. In total, the app has been downloaded over three billion times worldwide. And that's out of a global population of eight billion people... Quite a tremendous success for this Chinese app. I do wonder, though, why no smart American in Silicon Valley came up with the "TikTok idea." Sure, Facebook now has over two billion active users, but TikTok is growing like crazy while Mark Zuckerberg's toy is stagnating.

The Chinese version of TikTok, known as Douyin, was introduced in September 2016. In 2017, TikTok was rolled out across the globe at the speed of a comet, conquering the world. ByteDance, the Chinese company, is still the owner of the app, and that's starting to raise some concerns. Although the TikTok servers are not located in China, why wouldn't all that user data and app behavior from those massive numbers of international users be forwarded directly to the followers of the Xi Jinping gang?

The fear of this is considered real by many (Western) governments, mainly because ALL Chinese companies are obligated to hand over sensitive (privacy) information when requested by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). That's just how things work in the terror society that China in fact is. The CCP stands above God and the law; the Great Leader Xi Jinping has the right to know what every citizen on this planet thinks and does 24/7. It's essential to realize (once again) that this Chinese notion of power thinking is not an Orwellian joke but the harsh truth.

In this light, I have no issue with governments in many countries restricting the use of TikTok. The state of Montana in the United States is going so far as to prohibit any resident from using the TikTok app starting January 1st. Governor Greg Gianforte has signed the anti-TikTok law, which aims to ’prevent the CCP from obtaining personal data.’ Isn't this a bit exaggerated? At first glance, it may seem so, but let's not forget that in certain parts of China, such Orwellian control already exists over the actions and behaviors of Chinese citizens. Through millions of cameras, smartphone surveillance, credit card data, etc, the privacy of many Chinese people has been reduced to zero. And with it, their freedom…… Uighurs can now be tracked at any time in the capital of their Xinjiang province by ’smart ethnically targeted cameras’... It sends a chill down one’s spine...

Perhaps the Chinese would, maybe, possibly respect your privacy as a TikTok user? Keep on dreaming! In the Netherlands, there have been at least two illegal Chinese police stations active since 2018, but who knows, there might be more. In any case, they were used to silence Chinese critics who had fled, it is truly shameless. And this is just one example... Currently, Dutch and Belgian civil servants are prohibited from having an active TikTok app on their work phones.

It seems wise to expand this prohibition to ALL civil servants and politicians all over the democratic world. Furthermore, even university boards should forbid their employees from having a TikTok app on their university phones. The theft of scientific (military-sensitive) information by the Chinese is happening daily: they have already infiltrated European universities.

Western naivety regarding Chinese expansionist policies has become painfully evident. That's why I enthusiastically applaud the decision made by the state of Montana in the United States!

PS: Are we also being manipulated by Facebook? And doesn't the FBI still have unrestricted access to all Facebook user data? Of course, that's the case, and it's highly objectionable. But I would still rather be monitored and scrutinized by the FBI than by Xi Jinping's gang of murderers.